Will this micro-game collection drive you quackers?
A group of ducklings finds a mysterious 100-in-1 cartridge and are now forced to play all the games to escape the insidious cartridge spirit! 100 microgames, fun and increasing difficulty—what more do you need for an interesting adventure?
If you’ve ever played a WarioWare game, then you’ll be familiar with the notion of microgames. Bite-size minigames that vary in difficulty and variety. DUCK. has NES-style visuals for the retro vibe and the games can vary from simple things like a Flappy Bird rip-off, hitting a baseball, sinking ships for treasure or moving a glass panel across a busy road, while others can be brief space shooters and everything in-between. There is a total of 100 microgames to be found in the collection and there is a nice variety between them.
There is a story mode about ducks being kidnapped until they beat a certain number of microgames in a row without losing the lives you have, it’s barebones but gets the job done. There is a co-op mode, but I was unable to test it due to living the bachelor life.
The microgames are decent, though the game does have a few issues with locking up and kicking you to the PS5 homepage. I only encountered it twice, but I’ve heard it happen a lot more to others. Hopefully a patch will fix this in the future.
The Verdict
DUCK Dangerous Ultimate Cartridge Kidnapper is a nice compilation of microgames that have the classic NES style to them. Crashing issues hold it back but if they fix it and you can overlook it in the meantime, you’ll have a fairly good time here.